What Comes Next
by DancingPhalangess
Summary: Christmas Eve, 1888 and the first Christmas Amy gets to spend with the Doctor. She's never had much fun at the festive time in the past, but perhaps that is about to change. One shot. Something for Christmas.


**I have a slight urge to write a one shot after talking to my friend Dan about Doctor Who for half an hour and how the Doctor and Amy make an excellent couple. **

"London, Christmas Eve, 1888," declared the Doctor as he strode from the TARDIS, flinging open the doors so that they crashed against the Police Box walls, simply so make his entrance all the more dramatic. He stepped out into the snow wearing just his jacket, as if he didn't even feel the cold and looked around at his surroundings, beaming like a child on Christmas Morning.

Amy Pond stepped out after him. Keeping within the doorway and holding onto the frame of the TARDIS door, one arm stretched either side, as she too took in the world they had flown into. She was dressed no more appropriately than the Doctor in a short denim skirt and her usual leather jacket with the sleeves that ended half way down her arms.

"Christmas Eve did you say?" She chirped, her voice lined with a heavy Scottish accent. "Well let's hope it's better in 1888 than in 2010." She stepped right out of the spaceship, and just like the Doctor, she didn't seem to notice how cold it was.

"What are you talking about Pond?" Said the Doctor, as if she had just personally insulted his dearest friend. "I love Christmas I do," he shouted, turning to the street and causing several people's heads to turn, staring at him in disapproval. "Best time of the year. Couldn't be merrier. I would have thought you'd feel the same about our jolly festives."

Amy shook her head, taking her place at the Doctor's side and swinging her arms up to take one of his, holding on, but not in a childlike way. Anyone watching them would think that she was the one in control of the pair, the voice of reason, the final world. And although she was facing the Doctor as if expecting him to tell her what they were going to do next, it was obvious that that choice did not lay with him.

"I suppose I did enjoy it once, but it's no fun with no friends to have snowball fights with or give presents to, and only an Aunt for company who does her best to pretend you don't exist." Her words weren't spoken with any trace of self pity of resentment. On the contrary, she sounded just as cheerful as ever.

The Doctor looked down at the young woman hanging off his arm, feeling a pang of guilt that he often got around her. She'd had a lonely upbringing, and he knew that was his fault. She didn't have friends because she kept talking of her 'Raggedy Doctor' who she swore was going to come any day now and take her beyond the Earth.

She'd put up with the taunting out of loyalty to him, although it was the last thing he had deserved after abandoning her when she was just a little girl. And if that weren't enough, he'd taken away every trace of the only childhood friend she did have. The one spark in her short and lonely life.

But Amy seemed to bare no resentment as she grinning at the scene around her, mesmerised by the choir that stood on the street, singing the old, traditional carols that she only ever heard in church anymore and the busy streets filled with people in cloaks and top hats, carrying armfuls of parcels wrapped in brown paper and string. What was normal to the Doctor was a whole new world for her.

"Snow!" the Doctor bellowed suddenly, as if he had only just noticed. Several people on the street jumped and shot him filthy looks, one woman even flung her armful of shopping into the air in surprise, but the Doctor seemed oblivious to the damage he had caused. Amy, however, used to the Doctor's outbursts, remained calm and unstartled, "I love snow. Best bit of Christmas. Well, no, best bit is the turkey, well, the crackers, well...oh darn it all, I just love Christmas. Did I mention that?"

Amy rolled her eyes at him and began to drag him across the snow covered street, leaving the TARDIS behind them. The Doctor didn't even try to resist her pull, he strode along next to her as if he were perfectly happy to be shown around a place he had seen a thousand times before by a women hundreds of years younger than himself.

Most people they passed shot them appalled looks, mainly down to Amy's lack of clothing and the fact that she continued to dangled from the Doctor's arm, half dragging him along as he strolled slowly around, trying to take in everything he passed, capture every moment of the period as if the world was new to him too.

Amy turned suddenly, pulling the Doctor down a lone alleyway that he knew all too well was not a good sign. No doubt there would be some form of alien lurking behind one of the bins. He quickened his pace so he was slightly in front of Amy, although she was still holding onto him.

Halfway down the alley, however, Amy let go of the Doctor's arm, dashing ahead of him before he could stop her. Before he could even ask her where she was going, two men burst out of a door on the side of one of the buildings. They were stumbling and both clutching bottles, clearly drunk. They seemed not to notice anything around them, too preoccupied with the fact that they had drained their bottles and had no more money for anything else.

The Doctor could still see Amy, several paces ahead of him, and he tried to call out to her, to warn her to be careful, but the last thing he wanted to do was to draw the men's attention towards his companion.

But they had already seen her.

"Oi oi!" One of them yelled, loud enough for half of the street behind them to hear. "What have we got here then?" The two men approached Amy faster, almost tripping over themselves in their drunken state to get to her. Amy swung around to face the source of the noise, her eyes widening at the sight of who was approaching her.

Her eyes darted around, searching for her Doctor, but he was still standing several paces behind, conflicted over what to do. The men were very large, and although the Doctor had saved the world countless times, he did not condone violence and fighting was not his strong point. If he got himself beaten up, there was no way he would be able to help Amy. But he couldn't just do nothing.

Anger shot through his whole body at the simple sight of them leering at her, as if she were a particularly tasty Christmas dish that they couldn't wait to sink their teeth into. She was his and no one else was going to touch her.

The Doctor started forwards, no plan in his mind other than he had to get those men away from Amy, but before he could even get close, he was once again frozen in position. He was forced to watch as Amy smiled seductively at the tallest man, the more handsome of the two, and he couldn't so much as turn away as she draped her arms around his neck, hanging off him as she had been to the Doctor just minutes before.

Then, it got even worse. He had thought the men were going to be a danger to Amy, he had guessed their motives, but hers seemed to be very much the same. All he could do was stare as Amy's lips locked over the stranger's as his friend cheered and called out for more. To him, it was just a show. To the Doctor, it was like watching his own heart break. What he really wanted to do was turn around and walk away, walk back to the TARDIS and leave Amy to her fun, but he couldn't even look away.

Amy, meanwhile, sunk deeper into the kiss, pressing her mouth closer to the stranger's who tasted of whiskey. She had never liked whiskey, her Aunt had been a heavy drinker of the stuff and the only times she decided to acknowledge her niece's existence was when she had hit the bottom of a bottle. It was during those times that Amy knew she preferred to be ignored.

She held onto the man's neck as if he were her lifeline, not daring to hesitate against his advances. Not until she had truly drawn him in. She could hear Drunk Man's Friend calling out in the background, shouting that, next, it was his turn. Not if she could help it it wasn't.

Amy drew away from the kiss, just a fraction, pulling their mouths millimetres apart. Still, it was enough for the man to whimper about the absence of his new found luck. She could feel his hot breath on her lips, and once again, the strong smell of alcohol hit her. She thought of her Aunt and all the times she had drunk, she thought of the Christmases that should have been, and the ones that were. She thought of all the classmates who had bullied her, and all them men in her life she had met like this one, and for them all, she brought her knee swinging up into the drunk man's groin.

He sunk instantly, and Amy leapt back to avoid being head butted as he doubled over, collapsing to the ground in agony. The other man, the one who had been cheering them on stared, awed at the sight of his big tough friend, squirming in pain on the snow covered ground.

"Still want your turn?" Chirped Amy, beaming at him. At first, the man continued to look nothing but shocked, but then his face twisted in fury and with a roar of anger, he raised his fist, but before he could so much as touch her, he too was knocked to the ground.

Amy blinked down at him, then turned to the Doctor, who was glaring furiously down at the drunks on the floor, one of whom he had just broken his rule of no violence for. "Better late than never," she teased, cheerfully, once again taking his arm. But she couldn't hold on for long before both men began to recover, the one she had kicked beginning to stagger shakily to his feet.

The Doctor turned to her, the same idea shooting through both their heads in the same moment. "Run?" He suggested.

"Run," she agreed, and together they set off, their hands linking as they moved, connecting the two, binding them to the other's side. They ran through the alleyway and past unfamiliar streets, one of them occasionally dragging the other behind them.

Finally, they came to a halt, skidding slightly and spraying light clouds of freshly fallen snow behind them that settled back onto the ground almost as if it hadn't been disrupted at all. Both paused for a while, gasping to get their breath back, the air they did manage to get out turning into clouds of mist in the freezing temperatures.

Where they had stopped was completely devoured of all life except for them. A vast, empty space, away from the busy town and drunks emerging from pubs. All they could see was white blankets of snow, covered by the darkness of the night. To the left, a frozen pond with several branches attached to a single tree hanging over the ice and behind them, simply a silence, an air no longer filled with the constant gaggle of noise of the swarming streets.

When he could at last breathe properly again, and was sure that they were not followed, he turned to Amy, looking her up and down for any signs of distress of physical injury. "Are you alright?" He asked, softly. He could still see those men leering at her, Amy's lips locked with his. She nodded, seeming completely unphased by the whole thing.

"Amy-" said the Doctor suddenly, putting a hand on her shoulder. He paused, realising he had no idea where he was going with the word. He just knew he had something to tell her, something she needed to hear. Her kiss with the stranger had proved that, but he didn't know if he had the words.

But he didn't need to say anything. He couldn't say anything, for in the next moment, Amy's mouth was covering his, she was kissing him like she could never have kissed the stranger. A kiss that told him everything he had longed to hear and filled the emptiness in his heart he had since he had met her. And he kissed her back. Communicating what his voice could not.

He said nothing, but still she learned what came after 'Amy'.

**I think I have actually just written something happy. Perhaps I will post this, or perhaps I am sat here typing to myself, I don't know. Writing this certainly made me feel more festive, and I wouldn't say no to a Christmas present of a review. **

**Merry Christmas :)**


End file.
